exiles for organizations whose purpose is to get information into north korea. to give just one example, radio stations run by north korean exiles that broadcasts daily to north korea. the mantra of the kim family machine that north korea is the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth and the north korean people on the world's happiest is being exposed for the lie that it is. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> kate obenshain argues president obama has divided the country for his own political gain and earned the moniker, quote, divider in chief. the obama presidency is the most divisive in u.s. history and says the president has allowed his ideology to trump the good of the populace. is a little under an hour.

>> good afternoon, everyone. i am the president of the clear blue loose policy institute and i thank you for joining us and welcome you to our conservative woman's network. special thanks to the heritage foundation. we have been putting this on for years ended to a pleasure to work with a fine organization like the heritage foundation. i am happy to introduce today's speaker, kate obenshain. you have seen her on fox news where she is a passionate, articulate defender of conservative values and has one of the loose policy institute's most popular campus speakers for many years and she has been speaking and mentoring young women that we worked with for decades and helped me out so many times to help the institute, and i am grateful to you for that. she has also been in almost all of our great conservative women

calendars. our 2013 calendar is out. we do it differently with not only beautiful women but beautiful scenes from march of 2013 and the quote on her age, courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount. other great ladies have spoken about courage as well. we love having you in our calendar. kate today will be talking about how despite lofty claims of unity the left is dividing america with their radical policies. kate is not just a regular guest on fox news that many other tv stations. i saw her earlier on cnbc. many radio shows, speaks all over the country and at the policy institute we are especially on edge to have paid as of member of the board of directors. kate came out of the university

of virginia where she wrote for the conservative paper and was a student leader organizing campus events and one giant statewide event. she came to young americans foundation out of college and took a lecture program which was small and made it into the biggest, best lecture program in the country. then she left for other important things and came back and served as vice president for a number of years until recently. kate was also chairman of the junior republican party from 2003 to 2006 and in that capacity garnered national attention when she led the charge against tax increases and expanding the role of government. the virginia republican party had been going through some rough times about then. there was a scandal, one of the leaders, before kate, and authorize -- she strained it out and said the party for smooth

sailing. then she served as senator george allen's chief of staff and when working for governor allen and chief education and health advisor she recommended me to the virginia state board of education and he appointed me to that and she got to work at that point that he was serving in the cabinet of george allen as well. we got to work with kate on state level issues as well. kate is the author of a new book right there. called "divider in chief," the fraud of hope and change. we are selling the book outside and she will be signing copies after she speaks. kate was born into a family of conservative leaders and activists in virginia. she is a graduate -- reside in winchester with four extraordinarily wonderful children, especially her youngest daughter who is one of the most gracious young ladies i

have ever seen. i want her myself. a wonderful activist for our cause. join me in welcoming kate obenshain. [applause] >> we are going to talk about courage. i have to point you to these two ladies sitting here with me. what a joy it was to get to know becky norton when i worked in the allen administration during a real revolution. it was a great restoration of our conservative ideals, va. going through difficult times and george allen came in and championed the great reforms of abolishing, implementing academic standards, reforming welfare so you have to work for your welfare benefits which is completely water down. becky was part of the revolution and are will tell u.s. secretary of health and human resources,

there was no issue she was unwilling to issue and that was a tough area for conservatives. she was out there on the front lines during the entire administration and she was an inspiration for me and a lot of other conservatives but particularly for conservative women. i want to thank becky for her noble service to the commonwealth and the country. thank you. michele i have known for years and years since i started at young america's foundation from the university of virginia and she is someone who has managed to combined career and family in the most professional and noble manner. she has three incredible young men as her sons and always put her family first, her husband and her boys but also the cause of freedom. that is something when i talked to groups of young women i really want to impress upon you

how important that is. i chose or originally to stay home with my children but to still be involved, still in state council of higher education but my goal was to raise my children and i got this crazy phone call when i had four children under 5. four little people, 5 and under, three boys and a precious little baby girl and i was so happy. life was exactly like it was supposed to be and i got this irritating phone call from george allen saying we need you to run for state party chairman in virginia. no. that is not happening. i am a very busy woman and i am happy the way it is. george allen, you can't say no more than once because he doesn't give up. he fights for what he believes in so finally okay so i ran for

party chairman, won and spend the next three years chasing all over virginia fighting for conservative ideas. the thing i want to impress on you is as hard as that was for a mom of young children i would not change it because it is so important for us to get engage in the battle. if we don't nobody else will and we are passionate about conservatism. we have a unique degree of passion because we are moms. even if you are not you are passionate. we are passionate because we want to pass liberty on not only intact but even expand it. pass that to our children and our children's children. even if you embrace the more traditional role and looking forward to that please do not think that you can get out of activism and being involved. we need to you in this battle from here on out. too important what we're standing up for.

i want to thank the policy institute. one of my favorite things is to travel around the country talking on college campuses because college students are on the frontline of the battle ended is important what you do stand-up for young conservatives and giving them the courage that they need. i did write this new book that michele held up, "divider in chief," the fraud of hope and change because of this talking to catherine lopez of the national review online and she said why did you write this? is it meant to be an awakening? i said you bet it is. it stuns me that half of the american population completely fell for this empty mantra of hope and change. the obama administration was going to be that transcendent administration that brought us all together. that is why barack obama earned

the white house. he said he was going to be the great you niter. remember the beautiful inaugural address and was glorious, where he said to conservatives i want to listen to you, especially when we disagree. beautiful idea. he was going to meet with conservatives in congress once a week. that was a great idea. he met twice. three days after that beautiful speech the conservatives in congress came to the white house and had a meeting and eric cantor air, congressman from virginia articulated the conservative perspective on increasing taxes, that we shouldn't do that. you know what obama said? he said eric, i won, you lost, i trump you on that. week later he said i want the folks who got us into this mess to do a lot less talking and a lot more listening. you can talk a little bit but i

want you to stay on the sidelines while we try to clean this up. unbelievable. gone was any notion of unifying the country, bringing us together. instead, there came this steady mantra of attack and vilify the other side. no ideas. just by his 2008 campaign for president was not idea based. hope and change, glories of the speeches with no substance whatsoever. the only substance was he was going to unify us. the post partisan president. and yet almost immediately conservatives are hostagetakers. they are the enemy. they care only about millionaires and billionaires and not children with autism and down syndrome. what was this approach? why did obama and his administration come in wanting to vilify the other side with

this intense hatred? it was bringing to the administration that philosophy of a community organizer. for years obama has set eyes of a community organizer, just at the national level. this was the one qualification that i think obama brought to the administration. you can even call it a qualification for being president. he was a community organizer. he was a darn good one. he was known by his fellow community organizers as our master of agitation. this is the essence of how he views the world. obama would go into a community, he would identify and an emmy for that group, for that community and stoke their animosity, fuel its and generate a next, a anger and hatred. when everyone was riled up hating some organization or person or whatever he focused their attention on, he ran

through his agenda, no discussion, no need for any debate or discourse but all based on distract everybody, get them focused on some entity and ram through whatever you want. that is exactly what he has done at the national level. for the past four years there has been no philosophical back and forth, no dynamic free and open exchange of ideas. i wrote this book called "divider in chief" not because i am attacking division in politics. i am all for it. anyone who watches fox news, i love it. when it is based on ideas. that is the central premise of our country, that we are free to have that dynamic and vigorous exchange. our founding fathers were not singing around singing kumbaya. they would duking it out with a different philosophy. because they had mutual respect -- wasn't always respect the because they were able to fight

it out based on ideas and philosophy we now live in the greatest, most prosperous nation on the face of the earth because the best ideas were able to triumph. reason was left free to combat ideas that were not that great. that is what is happening, we're losing the ability for reason to be free, to combat bad ideas. do you ever hear the obama administration defending why it works to raise taxes on small businesses or individuals who are successful? do you ever hear them say from an economic standpoint this is how we will generate more income, it doesn't generate more income. only less income but it is indefensible so instead of trying to articulate a defense of their economic policies, they read us apart. they divide us. they start vilifying

conservatives as heating poor people and middle-class. lass warfare thing, ripping us apart based on economic data -- status, i was watching obama give a speech the other day, a couple months ago, he said 12 times the middle class in a speech. what is with pigeonholing us into the middle class? .. play hard, and you can build it, you can achieve greatness, but this president, instead, tears

us apart, villainizing those who succeeds. you know what he says the is problem in the society? the breathtaking greed of the few. that is an amazing, amazing thing to condemn those who have achieved success in our society. we honor success in the culture, but he vilifies it to ram through the notion we have to punish those people with higher taxes. there's something wrong with the people, they got ill-gotten gains. we have to punish them. no economic rationale for it. then you have conservatives organization arguing for lowering taxes since we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world, and the rationale for why that works. why from that stand point you get more prosperity, how it worked with reagan and kennedy, but you don't hear the same argument coming from this administration. they can't argue the facts because the facts do not back

them up. they also can't come forward and have an honest discussion about what their objectives are. whereas conservatives will argue our objective is to elevate everybody by increases prosperity, by unleashing the private sector from over bearing, not reasonable, but overbearing government regulations so that everybody can prosper. we believe there's an unlimited ability for prosperity. the left believe that it's a fixed amount. it's a pie, and everybody gets a slice of it and it's never going to get bigger. that's not how he see things, but we don't hear the left articulating that discussion because obama wants to force redistribution, and if he were honest about that, honest about his goals are not just equalizing everyone, but bringing them down because that's what happens when you try

to equalize income. you bring everybody down. if he were to be honest about that, give a defense, the american people would reject it resoundingly so instead he tries to turn conservatives into the enemy. let me tell you,ñ&r it's incredy effective when it's not met with powerful courageous, profound articulation of our ideas. when there's a vacuum on our side, that hate filled rhetoric rams through. i look, and. i -- i loi3ñr and i want to talk particularly about this notion about a war on woman. you know, obama has not just kept the hateful rhetoric to class fare or against women, it's dividing young people, young against old, old against businesses and corporation, dividing us based on our faith, dividing us, of course, based on race.

this was supposed to be a post racial presidency, and yet racial tensions are higher than ever perhaps in this country in terms of trusting one another and thinking the best of one another. he's divided us based on immigration saying that conservatives are the enemy because we have a different philosophy on granting amnesty and that sort of thing, but the war against -- the war against women is probably the most stark example of how he has tried to pit americans against one another. now, i will say i think there probably is a war against women happening here, but it's not coming from the conservative side. it's a shame we use words like "war against women," but i'll get to that in a men, but the reality is that this administration used that health and human services mandate not to have a discussion about religious liberty and what

really this organization should be compelled to do, but instead to use that as an opportunity to say, a-ha! we told you conservatives hate women. they want to deprive them of their -- they call it reproductive justice, because they, conservatives do not believe religious organizations should be compelled to provide insurance program that covers something that's ant thet call to their beliefs. because of that very rational explanations, conservatives despise women. they are engaged in an assault. conservatives are involved in an assault. we are actually waging a war against women. women's health needs under attack by conservativeses that's what they say. the language is serious stuff. my favorite example of the whole war on women, a montra coming from the left is congresswoman sheila jackson lee, always has

good stuff, but talking about this conservative -- get it, okay, we are attacking women because we hate women. our assault on women, jackson lee said, quote, i think the next agent by conservatives is dragging women out of patient rooms into the streets and screaming over their bodies as they get dragged out of getting access to women's health care". seriously, seriously, that's what we're going to do? unbelievable. there's no fact, no nothing to back up such a profoundly misleading statement that only is put out there to insight hatred and mistrust, and this mistrust of our intentions, of our goodness so when in issue comes up in congress or in the public discourse, sometimes like this and statements that our president and administration has

said will nullify objections from conservatives on any issue, particularly on issues remitted to -- anything related to women, which for the left, by the way, runs the gamet from a to b, abortion to birth control, is all we care about according to them. it's intended to silence our side. sometimes it's pretty effective, particularly among conservative men and are, like, wow, i can't talk about issues relating to women. you know what? oh, my gosh, they have to talk about issues related to women because those are issues that affect everybody. women are concerned about the same thing that men are concerned about. let's look at what the left is saying about women, how tolerant and open minded the left is. again and again, let's see, hillary rosen, i'll mention a conservative woman -- okay,

hillary rosen said of ann romney, of the wife of mitt romney, that she's actually never worked a day in her life because she's a stay at home mom. as my mom knows it's harder to stay home with those babies than it is to go to work. i'll tell you that. it's tough being a stay at home mom. democrat chairman -- chairman of the democrat committee in south carolina. he's on the left, just a profound raging liberal, and dick said, compared governor haley to eva braun. did you hear anyone condemn that as hate filledded? no. she's suffered disproportionally as all conservative women do by character assaults, attack, attack, attack, while running for governor, she was accused of having an adulterous affair.

okay? there was not a single inch of evidence to back it up. she said if you bring up one piece of evidence, i'm out of the race. nobody could bring up anything, but the liberal media put that paragraph in every article written throughout the entire campaign to impugn her character. it was wrong. it was an assault on women by the left. nobody -- did the president pick up the phone and see if she was okay after dick compared her to eva brawn? no, he did not. he called sandra fluke and her parents to see if they were okay and if they are proud. let me tell you what my parents would have said if i testified for unlimited free contraception. she would not be proud. rush limbaugh was inartful in how he brought it up, but nobody else touched that with a 10

#-foot pole. the notion that women are entitled to unlimited birth control paid for by the government, that'sen issue we should be talking about as a culture, but we're not supposed to do that. the chairman, another raging leftist, john walsh, criticized united states senator scott brown, i know he's a man, but there's a point, criticized him for -- in a television ad, for folding laundry because he was trying to be an honorary girl. how about that? oh, you're not supposed to say that sort of thing. bill mar called sarah palin every name in the book, called michele bachmann every name in the book, david letterman has done it, kris matthews has done it again and again and again, insulting women. letterman attacked sarah palin's

daughter. she was 14, giveñmer a break. nothing, nothing ever happened. it is profound hypocrisy, a theme that runs through the book, how incredibly hypocritical the left has been in ripping the country apart, claiming to be the champions and defender of women, and yet, they just defend liberal women, and their policies are systematically reeking have vac on the groups they claim to champion. women is the perfect example. highest poverty rate in 17 years because of the result of the job killing policies of this administration. the extreme poverty rate for women is at an all-time high meaning those women in america living below half the poverty line, we should not is women living below half the poverty line in the country, yet 7.5 million of them are. of april 2012, 53

million women not in the work force. of course, the administration -- in, they didn't, actually, i'm not going to go there. women are not getting their jobs back as fast as men, and on -- obvious, sky rocketing gas prices -- sky rocketing food prices are hitting women harder -- those women in poverty, it's hitting them harder than it is hitting men, and we don't hear any concern from this administration, no empathy about how women are suffering right now. it's all about how conservatives want to attack them. there's no discussion or concern about the economic situation that women are currently in. it's also amazing to me how hypocritical this administration is in how it actually does treat women. supposedly, conservatives want to launch an all-out assault. talk about the boys club. that's what the white house has

been known for. it's not a secret. i'm not pulling this out of thin air. look in the book. there's citation after citation. it was known to be, particularly in the beginning, but things have not changed, a boys' club. anita dunn, the white house communications director says she was shocked to find obama's campaign in 2008 had more to do with frat house ethics than before. another said she felt like, quote, "a piece of meat every time she went to the oval office." christina roamer. many said they were invisible in meetings with obama, dominated by the men in the room and obama's deference to them. anita said, quote, "looking back this place would be in court for a hostile workplace because it fit all classic legal requirements for a genuine hostile workplace to women." now, when women, a senior

staffer went to president obama to complain about rahm e emanues attitude towards women, his rough manner, obama's response was, look, i really need rahm. that was the response. as the environment deteriorated, obama got the women staffers together to have a dinner with them to address the concerns. okay. the meeting began with obama looking at his watch and saying, are there concerns i need to know about? that's how concerned he was. i wish your expressions could be seen out there. again and again, ignored the concerns of women. he ignores the concerns of women who are going to be affected negatively by obamacare, all of the taxes that are going to hit the middle class, the medicine cabinet tax, limitations on what

we put in the flex spending thes, but it is also the sheer way in which obama patronized women that is so offensive and belies what complete hypocrisy the war on women is. camp damp bell brown, a former cnn anchor, had a great piece on how paternal this administration has been towards women making reference to how women a smarter than men, all so tired, that kind of fake praise showered upon ones who those think are easy to impress. she said that he is having a hard time connecting with tens of millions of americans, many of those who are women, who feel economic opportunity is gone and they are losing hope. in an effort to win them back, mr. obama is employing a tone that comes across as grading and even condescending. i love this part.

most women don't want to be patted on the head or treated as wards of the state. they simply want a chance to succeed based on their talents and skills. isn't that to, so true? yet, we are being treated as though we either are wards of the state or we should be. prime example, the life of julia. on president obama's website, the notion -- and, by the way, it was not the life of bob -- please, take that into account. it was the life of julia to suggest women in particular need the hand of government from cradle to grave reaching down and helping us so we can achieve some level of happiness, some -- but without the government, we can't do it. by the way, there's no man in the life of julia. she had a child, and, poof, had a child, but the man was nowhere to be seen. i guess it's the fish, you know, bicycle thing, gloria thing. again and again stephanie

cutter, couple weeks ago, associate of obama, adviser to obama said women are not concerned about what happened over the last four years. i beg to differ. we are really concerned about what's happened over the last four years. i was particularly appalled at something on obama's website, i think it was last week, came down quickly after the outrage by conservatives, but this whole notion of support this administration, quote, "like your lady parts depend on it." that was on our president's website. it was a cartoon. you can find it all over the internet if you want confirmation he did this. i love dana, she tweeted out shortly after that, you know, i'll support this administration like one of my lady parts depends on it. we conservatives call it a brain.

[laughter] i know, i thought it was such a punch. it's incredibly patronizing to diminish women in this way assuming their concerns are irrelevant, that they don't actually have them, but that is what this administration has had to do in order to ram through its philosophy. i won't even get into the part -- i'll mention it briefly because i'm passionate about it, how this president is completely ignoring and truly enabling the real war against women that's happening in muslim countries around the world. he talks about one of the primary foreign policy objectives is to ensure reproductive justice around the world. in all nations all around the world, abortions on demand all around the world. do you hear him condemn islamic nations that do not allow a woman step a foot out her door without a male chap roan? no, never. condemn anything in afghanistan where we shed blood, and he

never defends girls who have acid thrown on them because they go to school now, or the notion that the ruling of religious groups in afghanistan just issued a mandate, and a proclamation that men are fundamental and women are secondary, and the president of afghanistan endorsed that ruling. did this president ever use in his enormous power and influence to say that is an assault on women, on their dignity, on their basic rights? never. there's been dead silence from the administration. in fact, the state department has actually said that they are not going to be involved saying, quote, "gender issues have to take a backseat to other priorities. there's no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project." you know, women are slaughteredded around the world in the name of islam, and, yet, this president says nothing about it.

what kind of hypocrisy is that to suggest that conservatives want to assault the rights of women simply because they want to protect the right of religious organizations to be able to practice and live out their faith. that is appalling. the reason he's doing it, and the reason i wrote this book is to impress upon the american people there is a goal behind all of this. there is a goal to force through a very radical left agenda, but there's also the goal that troubles may be -- as troubling as that is, and it is very troubling, but the effort to literally silence half of the american population, whoever doesn't agree with him, president obama doesn't, and the administration, don't want to get into the messiness of democracy, that back and forth upon which we are founded, and i will tell you this. i think the obama administration's conduct and the way they have tried to divide us and rip us apart is a ringing

endorsement for conservatism and the fact our ideas triumph every time they are put in direct contrast to the left's ideas. don't think he's not articulating his ideas because he doesn't have them. the obama administration and the leftists within have a very definite agenda. they have ideas. they can want talk about them because they would be rejected by the american people. their ideas belie this incredible and inherent arrogance in the wisdom of government and intellectual and liberal elite over that of hard working americans. i know that this country is far better than that, and i just pray that that 50% of the american people, that somehow lulled into complacency or convinced that conservatives are filled with hate and rage, i pray that they will look into what we believe and that they

will cease to be convinced by this bankruptcy on the left by this -- this sheer -- these vicious tactics of destroying, really, our character, destroying our motives and who we are and that the american people will, instead, wake up and say, wait a minute, there are now ideas being talked about here other than on the side of conservatism, and there must be something very menacing that they are trying to hide, and i thank clear booth institute and the heritage foundation for making sure those ideas will eventually triumph. thank you, all, so much. god bless you. [applause] >> what a good talk, kate, a great book, all those on c-span, you need to read the book, buy it -- >> and share it with others. >> the one insight that hit me, and, i mean, i watch this as closely as nip, but when you said they want to keep us in the

middle class -- >> yeah, i know. >> i flashed back to last night, the 90-minute dente, and one who said middle class over and over again. conservatives are middle income. that's a great thing. >> exactly. >> we aspire to be higher income. it's to keep us middle income. that is the key to socialism, really, when you go to europe. they talk about we have to be middle class. that's great, but they want to keep us. that's an insight. >> why shouldn't we all be affluent if we want to be? whatever you want, seek and achieve that. >> bring us all down to middle income class. >> right. >> we have a microphone here. i'll let you call on people. if you don't mind, give your name and affiliation and speak up in the microphone to social security recorded on c--- microphone ensure it's reported

on c-span. >> castro mentioned we want to help people get to the middle class, it's not just obama, but the administration who want to keep people in certain classes. >> i'm nicole madden, intern at the heritage foundation. >> great. >> what advice to you give to argue with young women in their 20s brainwashed by the other side. what do you say to convince them otherwise? >> question them. questioning people is probably the best way to get them to wake up, just talking to them again and again until their eyes glaze over does work. ask them questions, why do you believe that? why? realize this, you all who are so young realize what's happened on the college campuses. you have been brainwashed, literally, not just college, but grade school, middle school, high school, you have been utterly brainwashed. there's speech codes on college campuses where if you stand in this square or circle, you may

say what you want. you have first amendment rights. you step outside that, and you are bound by a campus speech code. if you violate, you can be sent to sensitivity training. a lot of what you want to say to the young women is going to shock them because you're not allowed to actually say some of those things on their campus because that could be perceived to be insummitting to persecuted groups, which, by the way, does not include white conservative women. we are not counted, neither are the white men, sorry, nor christians or jews, but everybody else is subject to the speech codes. if i ma÷et a comment about sanda fluke, when i say that on college campuses and among conservatives, there's a collective gasp because i can't say that. they want to shut us down.ññr it's a painful process to try to awaken our young friends, but you must. you have got to try to talk to them. look for issues you can find

consensus on. that was ronald reagan's way of bringing people to his perspective. please don't go in there and think about thee most insinned yarr issue the nation is thoroughly split on and use that as the core issue to bring people to conservatism. i would talk about free market economics, about lowering that -- this is the one argument i would start with -- how ronald reagan, when he was president, with a democrat congress, by the way, how he lowered that highest income tax bracket from 70% -- it was 70%, the government thought hay had a right to 70 #% of the income. obama thinks it's 40%, and that's just the beginning. 70%, reagan was able to lower it to 28%, and the left would say, oh, my gosh, the government's not going to have revenue. what are you doing about the deficit? income to the federal government, revenue to the federal government doubled, doubled for that income tax

sñrá works. why? because more people were free to try to achieve prosperity. there were more assets in the private sector for businesses to grow and expand and businesses were encouraged, regulations rolled back, and so prosperity was encouraged and ensued. use those facts that are irrefutable and present them and, you know what? you'll see the greatñhr awakenig taking place, and give them books that will start to open their minds, books about relevant topics that people are talking about, and they'll read them. a lot of young people come to conservatism through books by sean hannity, other folks out there, rush limbaugh, folks on the front pages. that's the first introduction to conservatism. share those books with them. yes? >> hi, i'm eleanor, also an

intern here at the heritage foundation. you said skyrocketing prices hit women more than men. robert has a piece saying the leading cause is because there's an absence of married fathers in the home. is that what you mean when you say it hits women more? >> the high rate of poverty among women right now, and even the women who are not in poverty are right above the poverty line, and so obviously gas prices have doubled over the -- more than doubled -- over the past four years, and in some places, it will be tripling. that's devastating to a single mom, three kids, trying to get their kids to school, trying to get to work. that is actually something that can stop them in their tracks, completely debilitating. the cost of food for these women who are right on the line of poverty or in poverty, but

absolutely the absence of fathers in homes, the absence of stable two-parent families has so much to do with increasing levels of poverty among women. that is one of the best indicators of success is whether or not you're married and stay married, and we've seen under this administration the literal explosion in entitlement programs, and we're not supposed to talk about that either because that makes us racist or sexist. we have to talk about that. a society that's somehow dependent upon its government, and we are warned once the majority of the people are dependent on the government, the democracy is in peril. wake up to that fact. we're not saying half the population is lazy, by the way, but the government is trying to ensnare and enslave them on dependency. government doesn't scale back willingly. we have to do it. government is greedy and wants people to be dependent upon it

because it knows best. that's what the left thinks. we have to champ yon the rights of individuals to have that opportunity for prosperity. watering down welfare requirements that this administration has done is an assault, an assault. i'll use that word, on those who are in poverty because it discourages them from seeking that independence, to suggest that runninger rands for a neighbor qualifies as work, i don't think so. i don't think so. that's not real reform. yes? >> i'm katherine rod rodriguez h the clear booth institute, and i know you know this, and some of the students in here may have experienced this, but sometimes being a conservative campus activist, even as a woman, feels like a lonely thing, especially when you're confronted with feminists around you, and it's

like women need an extra push. are there any words of support or encouragement that you can offer to the young women here and also young women watching. >> absolutely. women need to be pushed -- some, not all, but when i was legislated chairman of the republican party of virginia, i didn't think anything of being the first woman. i really didn't. it's very rude of me. i didn't think anything, like, whatever, and the media went nuts, of course, when i'm called chairman, they thought that was appalling. i went around the state, and i met with, you know, my tour, getting to know you, and everywhere i went, women came up to me, literally in tears, saying i never thought i'd see the day when the woman was chairman of the republican party of virginia. completely changed my thinking about women in leadership roles, women standing up for what they believe in, and i realized sometimes, we women, need an extra push. i started this immediately after that. i started leadership training

program for women, and on the first day of the classñhr i askd how many of you would consider running for office someday? one little timid hand went up. i said, why not? what's with you guys? why not run for office? the response was i like being a supportive role. i get that. it's a very natural place for women, nurturers, i want to be in a supportive role, but conservatism needs to promote women. they are the majority of the american population, and we need women if our ideas are going to triumph so consequently, women need to be involved and more need to be in leadership positions because when you look on the tv, flip through, and you only see a bunch of white men representing conservatism, that's a turn off for women. we want people like we are and we get introduced to new ideas that way. we have to champ yon our women. it is a very lonely thing to be a conservative woman, period, on

campus or not. that's why groups are so important because we need that support, the defense, because sometimes our conservative brethren don't run to the defense like we need to. offering sarah palin up is a great example. i don't care what people, conservatives, whether they love her or not, but defend her because she is out -- when she is attacked for personal reasons, defend her. when michele bachmann is brutally ripped to shreds by some of the comedians, that's their excuse, defend her. she's one of the smartest women in congress. she is cor ray joes. she has stuck her neck out. these women are sticking necks out. we have a precious girl, friend of ours who is an activist, black well, and she's trying to start up a young americans for freedom chapter, and the school has crashed down saying, no, you may not start that chapter

because there's things on their website that are offensive. hilarious they let leftists set up, but not a young american for freedom institute on the campus? she's suffering. she's assaulted by all sides, but she's courageous. she got a piece yesterday on foxnews.com. ashley black well, but young america's foundation and clear booth ran to her defense. it's important we stand up, but important that conservative women have a spine of steel and the skin of an armadillo. we need you engaged in battle. you will be called every name in the book. prepare yourself for it. you know what that means as margaret thatcher said? i'm always immensely encouraged when they call me names because that means they have not a single argument left. that means yoir winning. look at you all smiling. that's what we need you to do. it is your moment when attacks

begin. you can either run from lpy arena, which is their objective because conservative women are tremendous threats, and this war on women is intended to get us out of the arena, those who champion our ideals, particularly, we women, when that attack comes, you do have that choice. you can flee or you can stand strong. you can weather the attacks and still at the end be standing, and people will respect you and they will listen to your ideas, and you will have furthered freedom. you will have had this tremendous impact. remember our founding fathers and all they were willing to suffer up to death. they were subject to treason. they committed treason, but willing to stand up for what they believed in. i hope we don't have to stick our necks out subject to death, but we women conservatives are in a very similar position to that of the founding fathers where we are sticking our necks out, not for publicity, not for money, but for the great

god-given notion of freedom because we believe it is worthy of our defense. call me any name you want, pails in comparison to what my mission is to promoting and protecting freedom for my children. bring it on. yes, sir? >> i write for the pakistani spectator, and, you know, you have worked on the hill, and you know shea la jackson is a very, very tough lady, even to work with, but i remember after 9/11, she was the only one who opposed involvement in afghanistan, and today you can see we're spend $2 billion each year, what are we getting? you think this lady has special insight that whole country was able to see, but she perceived

what would be the end. i'm from that part of the world, and i feel we are investing money in that part. i'm from pakistan, and they are becoming millionaires because of the u.s. taxpayers. back to the book, i live 14 blocks from that, and i experience that, a few ladies hooked up, more baby, more check. they are motivated in terms -- >> sorry to interrupt you, we're short on time, what's the question? >> you are getting upset -- >> no, i need the question because we have to wrap up. >> there's motivation in sense in terms of going to church -- >> who is they? >> african-american -- >> right. >> how can we -- >> absolutely, a point why it's absurd that -- i'll take it from there -- one reason why it's absurd this whole notion that conservatives

are out to get african-americans, and you look at how it's yet another group that has been systematically undermind by this administration's economic policies, and you know what? sheila jackson lee and others in the congressional black caucus of two years ago stood up and said this is not working. this administration's policies are not working. they are hurting blacks. they are hurting poor people, and you know what obama said? he said, enough of the wiping, take off your bedroom slippers and put on your marching shoes. that was extreme arrogance and condolence by the man who claims to be the champion of african-americans, women, and young people. all these groups suffer under the obama administration. he does not have empathy for the suffering of americans, nor is he willing to engage in a

conversation of the economic policy that's gotten us into this mess in the first place. thank you, all, so much to being here, i look forward to talking to you afterwards, but thank you for being here. thank you to the clear blue booth and the heritage f5urpáion. [applause] >> kate has been a speaker so many times that our usually gifts don't work. >> i have some coffee mugs. >> i know you have those -- >> i love them. >> we got her a copy of the original -- >> oh, that's great. >> have you seen this? >> i've never seen this! >> it's an old movie -- >> my boys will love watching it. >> they will. it's a wonderful play, you know, written decades ago, still produced. there was a recent redo of the movie, it's not anywhere near as good as the original here. the funny thing about the play is there's not a man in the play, but the play is all about men. we know about that. thank you.

>> a wonderful box of chocolates for a wonderful lady. >> kate, on behalf of the heritage foundation, we have a few items to give to you. oversaw the heritage guide of the constitution, and this is a book that is good for women as well as men and a great reference for you. ed signed it for you. >> oh, great, thank you. >> i wanted to mention as we close out today that mrs. thatcher's birthday is this weekend. >> oh -- >> and so we have for you a poster -- come down to the front. we have a poster for you -- show kate here -- >> beautiful. >> and we have a poster for everybody here today that looks like this, and then we also have for you a copy of a speech that mrs. thatcher gave on courage.

>> great. >> she gave it interestingly enough at a heritage event. the occasion was the presentation of the clear award to ronald reagan. all of these things come together, a lady of courage speaking to women and men of courage who stand for principle and give gifts that honor two of the favorite heros, march great thatcher and roomed reagan. >> thank you, becky. >> thanks, michelle, thank you,i kate, it's really been a privilege for us to work together over these last number of years to actually have this conservative women's network monthly event where we bring together outstanding women leaders and future leaders, mostly women, but the occasional man who is welcome too. now we'd like to ask you to join us for lunch out here in the lobby and thanks to our two heritage interns who had the microphones today. kate has books and is happy to

sign. >> thank you. >> thanks very much. enjoy the rest of your day. [applause] >> this book is about liberals, not democrats, who are often not that much different from republicans in many respects. no, this book is dedicatedded about peculiar brand of american who self-identifies as a liberal, lives life as a liberal, and wishes more of us in america were liberal. think michael moore, nancy pelosi, think your local college professor. you know, think the driver of the crazy call with all the bush is hitler bumper stickers on the back of the car. [laughter] you know, think the checkout help with the master's degree in

gender studies wearing a head band at your local whole foods store. you get the picture; right? [laughter] they dominate professions leaving a large cultural imprint in the country of ours, professions like journalism, arts, academia, and america's fastest growing band of entertainers, circumstance day sew lay acrobats. who are these people who call themselves liberals? how does such a small group impact our lives? what motivates them? well, i'm in an excellent position to answer the deep questions because i've been watching liberals closely for over 30 years, i studied liberal s jane goodall studies chimps in their natural habitats and without judgment, in silence mostly because we bailey speak

the same language. tireless in liberals, humored them, teaseed them, prodded them, and, yes, loved some of them. best friends are liberals, some members of my own family. now, my commitment to understanding liberals sometimes worried by good conservative friends and they questioned my mental health, but i read "the new yorker magazine," i saw "the that gin that monologues," listened to npr when i got a chance and learned everything about a fly as much as i could tuning into "all things considered," and i watched my carbon foot print as much as a man who loves his suvs and owns a well cooled home in dallas could watch his fruit print. i learned liberals don't love things about this world, but trying to correct, fix, mend, and adjust every aspect of other

people's daily lives. they spend a lot of time thinking about america's faults and how to correct them, america's ills and how to cure them. liberals love to hate things that most americans love, and they spend the rest of their lives endlessly trying to take things away from us, ab they are convinced they do it all because they love us; thus, born this book "fifty things liberals love to hate." , i hope you enjoy it. >> watch this and others on line at booktv.org. here's a look at the upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country: >>

there are less than two months less before the election, and in many ways, this is the time that the book was designed for because as we enter the last few months, this is when the election really gets going, and,

to me, one of the great up told stories is this is not just obama versus romney. it's obama versus carl rove, and he's been behind the scenes the whole time, and he has put together over $1 billion that will be spent in these last two months, and we, in new york, you're not going to see much tf. it will be spent in the battleground states. his -- he's become king of the super packs. he has -- when you put together his money with the money that romney has raised and the republican national committee, it's a total of $1.8 billion. to put that in perspective in 2008, mccain had $375 million to spend. this is a factor of five, and you are going to start seeing that coming out now. the other thing i wanted to discuss about him is who is he

really? what's he do? he's a political operative. well, how does he operate? what does he really do? i talked to a couple of sources about that, and one who is one of his victims said, you know, there's a dark and terrible beauty about what he does, and i had another source, a former cia agent named larry johnson, who told me that, you know, cia could learn a lot from carl rove, and the way he has deniability in all operations he does, he's both very, very visible. he is something like a 70% name recognition in the united states. that's up there with justin bieber. [laughter] we don't really know what he does. most people don't, and when you go back over history and look at the things that are starting to unfold in the election, he has deniability at a one level after

another. to me, the story became interesting in a way because i think most people thought carl rove was finished in 2008 when the bush presidency started to come to an end. he had been forced out of the white house in 2007. he was the prime target in the two biggest scandals of the bush era like the united states attorney scandal. bush left the white house with a 22% approval rating, the lowest in the history of the united states, and even top republican his brand was tainted forever, no unwilliamed to be a bush -- no one wanted to be a bush republican or work with carl rove. truth is he was back working again within a matter of weeks. it was evident to me in 2010 a

year after obama took office, three things happened. the first was from the -- came from the united states supreme court, and i think no person in the united states, that i can think of, has benefited more from the supreme court than carl rove. two decisions -- one in 2000, obviously, bush v gore, putting the candidate in the white house, and two, in 2010, citizens united decision. that opened the flood gates for contribution on -- unlimited contributions, in many cases from secret sources with no transparency whatsoever that is just unprecedented in history. the second thing that happened was michael seal running the republican party, and sort of running it into a ditch and couldn't raise a dime. it came to nader early in 2010,

you may recall there was a revelation in los angeles that the republican national committee had been entertaining its donors add a lesbian bondage themed strip club. for the party of family values, that did not work well. they could not raise a dime, and this gave rove his opening, and so in april, he had a lunch chon at his -- luncheon at his house in washington, d.c. on weaver terrace, hosted by the former chair of the rnc, had two dozen people over, and came away with tens and tens of millions of dollars, and that luncheon alone gave them four times as much money as the entire republican party so rovefuls effectively establishing an apparatus that gave him an enormous amount of power and authority with almost

no responsibility. he reported to no one. he had his hands on the purse strings ling to the 2010 elections, raising a total of $300 million, and swept congress. they took 63 seats in the house, and suddenly obama's big advantage was gone. he had no real authority. this money, so the question is what did he do with the money? it's not what is he going to do with the money, but it's going in the battleground states, and i started to look at what he's going to do now, and i decided to look what he had done in the past, and i found again and again that a lot of it really had not been reported in depth. we -- for one thing i found he had was a huge technology apparatus, and i went to

chattanooga, tennessee, and i found a company called smart tech. i saw rove about a year ago in ohio, and i asked him about this company, and he told me he had never heard of it. well, i find that hard to believe. this is a company that has a rather corporate history. if you go through the fronts and the corporate changes and who put up the original money, the original money came from two very wealthy republican donors named mercer reynolds and bill dewit. in the 80s, they bailed out george w. bush several times who had three oil companies in the 80s that went belly up, and each time they came to his rescue. they were also baseball royalty. bill dewit owns the st. louis cardinals, and his father owned the old st. louis browns, and

they gave bush entra ownership into the rangers, the only lucrative investment he made. he came away with $15 million. the company, smart tech, which started out as a legitimate technology company, soon became a republican operation, and it's all good and well that republicans or conservative groups have their websites and so forth, but this was very unusual, and i saw george w. bush was there, and the national committee hosted websites, later, the veterans for truth, hundreds and hundreds of conservative groups were there, again, that's all fine and well, but this company, which is highly, highly partisan, also over time acquired contracts

that should not have gone to such a partisan company, and let me just say two of those. one was if you're in the white house, your e-mails according to the presidential records act are public documents, and they are supposed to be hosted on whitehouse.gov, but rove made sure his e-mails were hosted on smart tech, and that 80 of his staffers who other people worked with him in the white house also had their e-mails there so when rove was investigated for the claim affair and again in the u.s. attorney scandal, suddenly 22 million e-mails were deleted, and these are all government documents, and they have never been found so that's -- that was one thing he seems to have gotten away with.

another thing was in 2004, smart tech played a central role in the presidential election, and the secretary of state, of each state, part of the job is to oversee a fair and impartial election, and you may recall in the 2000 election kathleen harris in florida was secretary of state of florida, and she also happened to play a central role in the bush election, and there was considerable controversy over that. well, very similar thing happened in ohio in 2004 where ken blackwell was secretary of state, and, again, he was supposed to oversee a fair and impartial election, but he happenedded also to be co-chair of the bush-cheney re-election committee, and he decided that -- to tabulate returns for

the 2004 elections, and the secretary of state's computer was not enough and they needed another computer service. who did he go to but smart tech. smart tech's role in this raises a lot of -- an enormous amount of very, very interesting questions, and i went through the returns of people who studied this. there were civil lawsuits. you could see when the returns came in that night, and what happened as that night wore on on november 2, 2004, it was a very, very close election. it was clear the election would come down to who won florida, who won ohio. these were the last two key battle ground states. around eleven o'clock, the networks finally called it for florida meaning there was one crucial state outstanding, ohio. whoever won ohio wins the electoral college.

the exit polls in showing kerry winning ohio by 4.2%. millions of people logged on to the secretary of state's computer in ohio, traffic went through the roof, up 700%. that meant the computers in chattanooga, tennessee had kicked in at 11:14 p.m., and suddenly, in county after county that reported, there were just strikes anomalies. in the next ten counties in a row, and this raises a lot of serious questions about who actually won the election. i went about as far as i could in tracing this down, and in terms of pinning it down conclusively, unfortunately, there were still some unanswered questions, and the reason for that is that again and again all the evidence vanished mysteriously, and there was a

court order as a result of one. lawsuits to impound all the ballots, but suddenly over a million ballots were damagedded or disappeared. in 2006, the new secretary of state, a democratic secretary of state was lengthed in ohio, -- elected in ohio, and she was about to take office, went by the new offices just before she formally took office, and when she went in, she saw everyone there under the direction of the old secretary of state, the republican blackwell, shredding thousands and thousands of documents. finally, in the civil suit, a man named mike connel, subpoenaed, scheduled to give another deposition, and he was rove's cyber guru who apparently had all the answers, and on december 19th, 2008, his plane